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Arriving at the first camp, Auschwitz I, opened as a labor camp on June 4, 1940 with the arrival of the first Polish political prisoners and later soviet POWs.
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The infamous gate with its sardonic German slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei - work brings you freedom".
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Today the blocks of cells are converted into museums. This SS photo shows the arrest of the Franciscan friars from Niepokalanow ("city of Mary Immaculate"), a Friary founded by St. Maximilian Kolbe in 1927. He and 4 other Franciscans would be executed in Auschwitz.
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The suitcases many of the Jews brought, deceived into thinking they were being relocated. They include names, addresses and birthdays.
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Thousands of pairs of shoes from those were killed in the gas chambers. When Soviets liberated the camp, the found tons of hair, eyeglasses, toothbrushes, prayer shawls, etc. A poignant reminder of the scale of the atrocities committed.
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Originally, the red brick buildings were Polish army barracks, but in the first year of the camp, an additional story was added to the buildings by the prisoners.
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In between Blocks 10 and 11 where thousands were shot in front of the far wall. In Block 10 on the left medical experiments (esp. sterilizations) were carried out on the prisoners.
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Block 11, the Block of Death, the "prison" within the prison camp, with the various torture cells: starvation cells, dark cells, and standing cells.
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Most famous, the starvation cell where St. Maximilian Kolbe was kept after volunteering to take the place of another prisoner. He was killed here by a poison injection on Aug. 14, 1941. Thus he saved the life of Franciszek Gajowniczek, who survived Auschwitz.
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Another photo of cell 18 where St. Maximilian spent two weeks before being killed.
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The beds don't look too bad - except they usually squeezed about 10 people to a single bed.
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Very quickly after being established as a labor camp (in which most died of sheer exhaustion), Auschwitz also began a second function as a death camp for the extermination of Jews.
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The role call area, where prisoners would often be forced to stand for hours while they were counted. It is also the location of the main gallows.
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The first crematorium, built and run by the prisoners (originally a munitions storage).
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This crematorium had four ovens, 3-4 bodies would be put in each for about a half-hour.
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On March 1, 1941 the H. Himmler commanded the building of Auschwitz II, on the territory/village known as Birkenau.
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Built on an incredibly large scale, Birkenau contained 300 barracks and buildings on a site stretching over 175 kilometers.
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When the wholesale extermination of the Jews began in 1942, this became the largest Nazi death factory. Upon arrival on these track which lead directly into the camp, 70-80% were immediately chosen to die and herded into gas chambers.
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Those who remained as slave labor lived in these filthy barracks (originally designed as stables).
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Overrun with vermin and lice, most would died from starvation, disease and exhaustion.
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The "bathroom" house shows the another way the Nazi's tried to reduce human dignity - open, shared toilets.
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From the watchtower of the main gate, a view of the vast killing fields. The Gas chambers and most living quarters were destroyed by the Nazi attempting to hide their crimes.
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